Sintra

Visiting the Castle of the Moors in Sintra, Portugal

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• published: 10 Jan 2016
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On our last day in Europe we decided to go on a day trip from Lisbon to Sintra, Portugal. Not having much planned, aside from a rough idea we'd visit either a castle and/or a palace, we set off to enjoy a spontaneous outing. After polishing off some delicious Portuguese Chinese food we set off hiking. Along the way we ended up getting lost for a while but we eventually made it to the Castle of the Moors. GEAR WE USE Olympus OM-D E-M5 II: http://amzn.to/1OchS7t Canon G7X: http://amzn.to/1YdjsYX Olympus 14-150mm II Lens: http://amzn.to/1Y79zeM Rode Video Mic GO: http://amzn.to/1WDKtVM Joby Gorilla Pod: http://amzn.to/1PgoY5F SanDisk 16GB Extreme Pro: http://amzn.to/25KEErs SOCIAL MEDIA & TRAVEL BLOGS AUDREY: blog: http://thatbackpacker.com/ instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thatbackpacker/ facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thatbackpacker twitter: https://twitter.com/ThatBackpacker SAMUEL: blog: http://nomadicsamuel.com/ facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nomadicsamuel twitter: https://twitter.com/NomadicSamuel instragram: https://www.instagram.com/nomadicsamuel/ Visiting the Castle of the Moors in Sintra, Portugal Travel Video Transcript: So good morning from Sintra, Portugal. Today is a pretty special day because it is actually our last day in Portugal and our last day in Europe. We're getting ready to fly back to Canada tomorrow and enjoy winter. So yeah, we thought we would take one last day trip. Sintra is only 40 minutes away from Lisbon so it is super easy to get there and there is a really cool castle that we're planning to visit. But first up, we're really hungry so we need to find some food ASAP. So let's go. Well, well it's an early lunch for us at eleven thirty AM. Yeah, we get hungry early. Anyways, we've really enjoyed Portuguese food. We walked by this Chinese restaurant and we had such a craving for Chinese food, so we're going to try Portuguese style Chinese food for the first time. So I got some wantons soup because it is actually a little bit chilly. You know, winter is on its way. So it looks really nice here. Piping hot. And also check out the biggest spring rolls I have ever seen in my life. Like that is basically the size of my face. An egg-roll. Yes, but it is huge. Oh, I think I'm probably supposed to be eating this with my hands since I'm basically destroying it on my plate. So I've got a bit of soy sauce. So messy. Such a messy eater. You really are. Mmmmm. That's really nice. These are homemade. They taste homemade. And then the salty soy sauce is just a perfect combination. So the food has arrived. Yeah, we ordered the lunch for two and we generally Chinese restaurants give generous portions but this place is really outdoing itself. Check out what we've got here. We've got sweet and sour pork, we've got fried rice and we have bamboo shoots with mushrooms and shrimp. Looks delicious. Let's dig in. Dig in! Alright, I'm going to try some of this sweet and sour pork with a bit of rice. Good choice? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, he says. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah! It must be good. Now that our bellies are full I think it is time to go explore. We're just going to walk around the town and I know that they've got a really cool castle here so we're on the lookout for that. So something a bit unique and quirky about Portugal is that it is the only country in Europe we've seen a tuk-tuk and this reminds us so much of Southeast Asia. We had a lot of tuk tuk rides in Thailand and Cambodia and all kinds of other places. So this is one of those days where we're a little bit lost. We didn't plan this trip in advance. We kind of just showed up here and then picked up a few maps but they're actually really confusing maps because if you look at the roads they are curvy, windy little lanes. So yes, we know we're in a really pretty park and there is lots of nice homes here but we haven't found the castle or the palace we're looking for. So, patience people and let's keep our fingers crossed that we get there. King of the forest in his tree-trunk throne. Who needs a castle when you're the king of the forest? Hahaha. You were aiming for the colorful Pena Palace and what happened? We ended up going to a Moorish Castle. The story of our life. We finally got our act together. We realized we were taking the very scenic nature path. Definitely the longest way to get up here but it was rewarding because we hardly saw anyone on the path. The Castle of the Moors located in Sintra, Portugal is a hilltop medieval castle dating back to the 9th Century. It was taken by Christian forces during the fall of Lisbon from the Moors and is now classified as a National Monument and UNESCO World Heritage Site. So it is time to wrap things up in Sintra and now we're going to go catch the train back to Lisbon. And tomorrow it is back home to Canada. Woo! Music in this video courtesy of Audio Network